Innholdsfortegnelse for July - August 2016 i Australian HiFi

It costs a lot of money to get an electronic hi-fi product to market. So much money that in the past only very large companies—or very dedicated individuals—were able to manage it. These days, thanks to the modern miracle that is crowd-funding, anyone can raise the money to build a product, often within only a few days. No more need for expensive bank loans or pesky shareholders or worse, demanding business partners. Just crowd-fund it. That’s what a company called Kreyos did when it thought a waterproof, voice-activated smart watch would be a good idea. Lots of ordinary people also thought it would be a good idea too, and quickly contributed $US1.5 million (using the Indiegogo platform) towards building that watch. But when the company finally delivered the watch to…

Australian distributor BusiSoft AV has won a ‘Special Achievement’ award from Danish distributor Dynaudio. ‘Although BusiSoft AV has been distributing Dynaudio only since October 2015, it truly deserves this award for Special Achievement in recognition of the amazing traction and remarkable results it’s achieved in such a short amount of time,’ said Anker Haldan, of Dynaudio. ‘Coming initially from retail, they know what dealers demand from a progressive and supportive distributor, making them a preferred supplier to the most important dealers. Moreover, with a business background from IT and new technologies, they know how our new products appeal to different generations of consumers. Also, on the marketing side they are extremely progressive.’ George Poutakidis, director of BusiSoft AV, received the award. ‘With a solid number of distributors globally, I am…

Italian loudspeaker manufacturer Sonus faber has introduced a new entry-level range it calls its ‘Principia’ collection. ‘This new line is designed for those who are seeking a simple hi-fi solution but with a definite Italian touch at an affordable price, all without giving up on perfect music reproduction,’ said Philip Sawyer, of Synergy Audio Visual, which distributes Sonus faber in Australia. The Principia collection comprises two pairs of stand-mount/ bookshelf loudspeakers, two pairs of floor-standers and a centre-channel. All models feature a 29mm diameter coated fabric dome tweeter identical to that used in Sonus faber’s Chameleon series of speakers, but the other drivers used in the Principia speakers were specifically designed by Sonus faber for use exclusively in this new entry-level series. ‘Although the exterior appearance of the new Principia…

In a deal that would seem to offer a great more to MQA than to Warner Music Group, the two signed a long-term licensing deal that means WMG’s catalogue will become available in MQA format, which enables not only hi-res streaming, but also enables owners to authenticate whether the music they’re listening to is ‘Master Quality Authenticated’ … that is, whether they’re hearing the original studio master, as signed off by the original producer, or not. ‘By delivering the sound of the studio masters from WMG’s iconic labels, MQA will enable the listener to step into the magic of the artists’ original performances,’ said Bob Stuart of Meridian, and the creator of MQA. ‘MQA is about bringing the most authentic sound to music lovers all over the world and WMG…

Newport Test Labs measured the output of the Yamaha CD-S3000 at 2.0203 volts for the left channel and 2.0336 volts for the right channel, a discrepancy so small that the channel balance was 0.056dB, totally insignificant and an outstanding result. The CD-S3000’s frequency response, measured using 16-bit/44.1kHz test signal, is shown in Graph 6. You can see it’s ruler-flat up to 2kHz then starts rolling off. However, this ‘roll-off’ has to be viewed in context of the vertical scaling the lab used for this graph, one of just 0.2dB per horizontal division. This means the trace is just 0.15dB down at 20kHz, giving the CD-S3000 a measured normalised frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz ±0.07dB. The response was also measured using a high-res digital test signal (24-bit/96kHz) which returned similar…

Canada’s Bryston Ltd. has been designing nigh-unbreakable amplification for a number of decades. Such is the reliability rep built by the company that many recording and broadcast studios around the world have adopted its products—Bryston’s stable now includes a full suite of electronics and, more recently, a selection of high quality speaker systems and a turntable. The company confidently offers an industry-leading 20-year warranty on its amplifiers, and the new ‘Cubed’ series amplification certainly oozes longevity from the extraordinary build quality on display—the handcrafted 14B³ on review here is built like a tank, and weighs in at a chiropractor-friendly 42kg. THE EQUIPMENT Bryston amplifiers have traditionally been rather conservatively styled. The new Cubed amps may not send industrial design fashionistas agape, but there are noticeable aesthetic improvements over the previous…

The pimply-faced nerd, his spectacles held together at the bridge by ragged duct-tape, crouches over his computer, his myopic gaze fixed upon the blue bar as it inches along. He is engaged in a criminal act, though he is unlikely ever to be prosecuted for it, and few of his peers would condemn him. A ‘ping’ through the computer’s speakers indicate that the download has finished. Yet another song has been added to his extensive collection of music, games and movies—a collection for which he has not paid a cent. Within a few seconds of first clicking on the FTP file, he is already emailing the song as an attachment to his friends. All over the world, similar crimes are being committed. Nerds and nerdettes, little old ladies (why are…

In the last edition of Headlines, Len came away very impressed from listening to Sennheiser’s incredible successor to the Orpheus headphone system. But perhaps few of us can stretch to $70K plus for such an ultimate headphone! The far more affordable Stax range of ‘earspeakers’ with their dedicated driver units make a compelling and realistic alternative. We mentioned last issue the release of the new SRS-5100 system from Stax, which will be replacing both of the existing SRS-3170 and SRS-4170 systems. The SRS-5100 system comprises the SR-L500 electrostatic ‘earspeaker’ and the SRM-353X driver unit, and is priced at $2,999 for the combination. It’s an exceptional performance to be sure, though also quite an investment. For those who are new to the Stax range and just getting started,…

Is hi-fi a personal endeavour or an expertise? Many music lovers will have purchased a hi-fi system and set it up themselves — but at what level might audio system design be considered a service as much as a retail experience? When should you bring in experts to advise, install and deliver the best solution for your needs? “It really is essential,” Len Wallis tells Audio Esoterica magazine in their latest issue. “Someone setting up their system for the first time is on a big learning curve, and that usually means a mistake or two. At any one time we are dealing with a number of issues that have arisen through clients going it alone, or worse, relying on others who are not trained in the tech nology, only to…

Oppo’s Blu-ray players have gained the highest of reputations for their quality and robust operation. Now the company has launched an alternative Blu-ray Disc Transport designed especially for the custom integration market. With the model designation of BDT-101CI (CI for custom integration), it includes a comprehensive feature list based on the award-winning 103/105 series players, but differs in being a modular design, so that it can be made to order. The player can be ordered with one HDMI output, or customised with a second, providing one for a projector and another to the AV processor or receiver. For custom projects where the signal needs to travel a long distance, an HDBaseT module is also available to deliver audio and video over Cat 5/6 cables. And for analogue audio connections the…

“There’s a lot more to the WFT-3 than just radio. It works with the UNDOK app for iOS and Android smart devices to deliver quite incredible flexibility...” Sangean has been a go-to brand for premium radio tuners in the industry for some time now, and for good reason. They have consistently turned out products with excellent build quality and signal performance – and this WFT-3 is no exception. This model features superior reception and sound quality thanks to its high sensitivity DAB+ and FM digital signal receivers. But there’s a lot more to the WFT-3 than just radio. It works with the UNDOK app for iOS and Android smart devices, so that when connected to your network via either its Wi-Fi or Ethernet connections, it delivers quite incredible flexibility. In…

Musical Fidelity’s compact, multiformat audio system features a design that is at once both beautiful and contemporary. Note the loudspeakers’ subtle elliptical shape with very fine finish; the amplifier with a custom-made extrusion, beautifully machined top form and elegant front panel; and the turntable offering a simple, minimalist style. The whole system has been designed to Musical Fidelity’s bespoke specifications, and so Merlin features the highest-grade components and technologies, many of them found in the company’s more expensive audiophile products. Although Merlin is sleek and compact, don’t think you’re missing out on abilities here. The main unit offers an impressive choice of analogue and digital inputs, including USB from computer, and Bluetooth streaming too, all ably handled by twin 24-bit, 192kHz DACs. Then at its heart Merlin uses twin high-specification…

AudioQuest JitterBug AudioQuest’s JitterBug is a digital music necessity. This dual-function USB and data filter simply has no peer in the market and is amazingly effective. It can dramatically reduce the noise and ringing afflicting both the data and power lines on USB ports. Simply inserting the versatile JitterBug into the USB input of any computer, laptop, DAC, receiver, streamer, car, or smartphone significantly minimises jitter and packet errors, thereby restoring music’s warmth, dimensions, depth, resolution, dynamics and clarity. Everyone should have at least one of these. Price $79. Spin Clean Record Washer Mk2 – get into the groove! Attention vinyl fans! The Spin Clean record cleaning system is the easiest, most effective and most affordable solution to cleaning your records and ensuring the cleanliness of your turntable. And unlike…

Following its success with its award-winning Densen B-110 and B-150 integrated amplifiers, Danish manufacturer Densen has introduced the B-130+ integrated amplifier, which is priced midway between the B-110 and B-150, at $4,990. As with all Densen amplifiers, the B-130+ does not use overall feedback and has separately regulated power supplies for the output transistors, drivers, preamp and microprocessor, though all are fed by a massive toroidal transformer and a 90,000µF capacitor bank. Almost all components are modern surface-mount types including Vishay metal-film resistors, custom-made capacitors, and Vima film capacitors, so that each channel’s printed circuit board is around the size of a credit card. ‘Thanks to the PCB being so small, we have been able to minimize EFI distortion, as well as create a much faster than normal circuit,’ said…

ATC marked the 70th birthday of its Australian founder and managing director, Billy Woodman, with a special limited run of ‘Signature Edition’ SCM10 mini monitors. Finished in a lustrous blue piano finish with a fine grain blue leather front baffle, the SE version of the SCM10SE had an anodised silver aluminium tweeter wave guide and a silvered mid/bass driver surround. The leather baffle was hand-finished by Eissmann, a leading supplier of interior trims for Aston Martin, Bugatti, Lamborghini and McLaren. As with all ATC speakers, the SCM10SE was built entirely in-house in ATC’s development and production facility at Stroud, Gloucestershire. The original SCM10’s soft dome tweeter was replaced with a recently-developed SH25-76S ‘S-Spec’ 25mm dual-suspension design, and its 125mm-diameter bass/midrange driver with the SB45-125SC, both manufactured in-house at ATC. The…

Audio Research has released the first three components in its new Foundation Series: the PH9 phono stage, LS28 preamplifier and DAC9 digital-to-analogue converter. The Audio Research PH9 phono preamplifier offers five different impedance settings to allow correct cartridge loading, while amplification is accomplished via three 6H30 valves. A front-panel menu system shows information on selected cartridge load, valve hours and more, and the unit has an automatic shutdown circuit to avoid unnecessary hours on the valves. The Audio Research LS28 preamplifier offers four balanced and four unbalanced inputs with provision for phase inversion and mono conversion, and two sets of both balanced and unbalanced outputs. The menu system allows control of numerous parameters, including input naming, tube hours, auto shutdown, and home theatre pass-through. Like the PH9, the LS28 also…

Long-time a highlight of the year for those interested in serious sound systems, Munich’s High End Show continues to grow in exhibitor numbers and scale of exhibits: This time around I had to spend an extra day at the event just to get around it all. If you want to see enormous turntables and gigantic loudspeakers this show has them in spades: Burmester’s monster Concept 500 loudspeaker (the name derives from the fact that each speaker weighs 500 kilograms) even had fixings on top so that it could be crane-lifted into position, and I’m not sure that it was the biggest at the show. It is the only speaker I’ve encountered with extra drive units on swivelling baffles that you pull out to engage ‘party mode’—in ‘audiophile mode’ only half…

Graph 1 shows the frequency response of the Krix Neuphonix MkII as measured by Newport Test Labs. As indicated by the graph caption, the response below 2kHz is the in-room response, gathered by averaging nine pink noise measurements at a distance of three metres. The resulting trace has not been smoothed via post-processing, but some ‘smoothing’ results during the averaging process. Above 2kHz, the trace was the result of a single gated sinus technique, with the microphone at a distance of one metre from the tweeter. This is the same response that would be obtained if the loudspeaker were measured in an anechoic chamber. It’s immediately obvious that the response is extraordinarily flat and extended, extending from 35Hz to 30kHz ±3dB. Equally important, there’s also no spectral ‘skew’ to indicate…

Rather than use the conventional steep ‘brick wall’ filter Meridian’s Explorer2 employs an apodising filter whose design eliminates pre-ringing… British high-fidelity brand Meridian has long had my admiration for going its own way. When much of the UK industry was grimly adhering to analogue as the only true path to high fidelity, Meridian embraced digital, using it and improving it. It developed systems with digital signal paths all the way to active loudspeakers, and created such things as Meridian Lossless Packing, a compression system for digital audio that not only preserved the entire signal, but included integrity measures to ensure that each byte matched that of the originally encoded signal. So I anticipated good things from Meridian’s new portable Explorer2 DAC. And I turned out to be right... EQUIPMENT There…

“An amazing achievement by Bryston’s design team” Newport Test Labs measured the power output of Bryston 14B3 as being 685-watts per channel, single-channel driven into 8 right across the audio frequency band, from 20Hz to 20kHz. This initially seemed at odds with the hand-written test results supplied with the amplifier (each 14B³ is individually tested by Bryston prior to shipping and the test results are included with the amplifier), which had Bryston measuring it at 675-watts, until we realised that Bryston’s measurement was taken with the amplifier connected to 110V/60Hz mains power, whereas Newport Test Labs, being based in Australia, was measuring using 240V/50Hz mains power. Other factors could be involved (‘eyeballing’ the onset of waveform clipping on an oscilloscope, which denotes maximum output has been reached, is influenced by…

When we suggest an audio system at Len Wallis Audio, we strive to recreate the sound that was developed in the recording studio. Now, with the launch of the new Panasonic ‘Ultra HD Premium’ DX900 series, this company has created televisions that are able to reproduce the video director’s vision more accurately than ever before. This picture is so stunning and comprehensive in its colour output that it is one of the few available consumer screens to receive THX certification. Panasonic’s flagship makes full use of HDR technology (see opposite) to reproduce the brightest brights and details in the dark areas of the screen at the same time. High-end LCD-LED panels utilise ‘local dimming’ to alter the LED lighting behind certain areas of the screen, depending on the brightness of…

New from Yamaha this month, the RX-A760 and RX-A860 network AV receivers – the first models from the new 2016-7 AVENTAGE RX-A 60 series, which combines immersive ultra-high definition home entertainment and leading edge multi-room capabilities. Yamaha has a long and distinguished history when it comes to producing high quality items founded in the company’s knowledge of musical instrument production and research in acoustical science and engineering. This latest series of AVENTAGE networking receivers certainly honours this heritage. They are crafted with the highest-quality components, obsessively matched and engineered using short signal path runs, painstakingly grounded circuit boards and secure anchoring by a sturdy frame-and-beam chassis design, all to provide the ultimate sonic excellence. Both of the newly-released models cater for 4K Ultra HD video and have HDMI ports capable…

AudioQuest’s thumb-sized DragonFly has been updated and replaced. There are now two models of this remarkable USB-powered headphone amp plus DAC to choose from, being the DragonFly ‘Black’ and ‘Red’ models. The compact 62 x 19 x 12mm dimensions are unchanged. So what’s new? Quite a few bits (pardon the pun), as it turns out. Gone is the older 24-bit ESS 9023 decoder, in comes a new 32-bit ESS 9010. This includes a minimum phase filter which, according to AudioQuest, will provide the listener with “a more naturally detailed and dynamic” experience. The big news is that each new model of DragonFly can also accept a digital signal from an iOS device or an Android device running 4.1. Plug an OTG USB cable into your Android device or a CCK…

More than a decade ago a small firm based in Atlanta, Georgia launched with a selection of distinctly affordable DACs and integrated amps, their existence motivated by the then-nascent computer-audio market. Peachtree Audio were clearly innovators, identifying a market for quality computer-based music amplification and playback well before anyone else got serious about it. As a result their products earned them a deserved and dedicated following. Now a significant revamp has emerged, with Peachtree launching the first in a new line of Integrated Amplifiers to replace the previous ‘nova’ series. Introduced under the guise of the ‘Peachtree 2.0 series’, the first of these new generation amplifiers is the nova150, to be joined later in the year by the more powerful 300 and 500 series amps. Visually the nova150 doesn’t look…

There have been rumours abounding for some months regarding a new range of wireless headphones from Bose. Wireless operation has been a missing feature on the existing QC25 noise-cancelling range – much requested, and now finally available in the new QC35. The QuietComfort 35 is a lightweight and extremely comfy headphone with exactly the same noise reduction capability that you can get with the QC25, with the same high quality look and finish, but with one distinct and important difference. Remove the cable and you can go Bluetooth, with noise cancelling active! The QC35’s noise-cancelling design features concealed microphones inside and outside the earcups, sensing, measuring and sending unwanted sounds to two proprietary chips, one for each ear, and these respond with a precisely equal and opposite signal in less…

If you’re looking for a fine combination of comprehensively equipped pre-amp and superbly powerful power amplifier – at a price that will delight the wallet – then this offering we have from NAD could well be the answer! The C 165BEE stereo pre-amp’s combination of new semi-conductors and improved production techniques (including the use of surface mount devices) has created opportunities for performance far beyond expectation when compared to previous products in this price range. The NAD C 275BEE power amplifier boasts many upgrades and refinements taken directly from the highly acclaimed NAD Masters Series M3 Amplifier. These include the application of Bjorn Erik Edvardsen’s innovative and patented Distortion Cancelling Circuit in the output stage and BEE Clamp in the power supply. A carefully engineered PCB layout has reduced distortion…

We’ve been playing in the Hi-Fi space since 1978. During that time there isn’t much that we haven’t seen as far as Hi-Fi components are concerned. What you may not know is we are also able to cater to your Hi-Fi service needs on site at our business premises at Lane Cove. Aside from our extensive showroom and offices here, we also have a dedicated Service Centre, providing service and repair for your Hi-Fi audio equipment products, whether they were purchased from Len Wallis Audio or elsewhere. In fact we pride ourselves on being one of the very few Hi-Fi audio equipment retailers in the Sydney Metropolitan area that also offers a fully-equipped service department, technical test bench and repair facility on site, staffed by experienced technicians. With our decades…

Hegel has tried to make sure its new 250-watt per channel H360 streamer/amplifier is a complete entertainment hub by including not only balanced and unbalanced analogue inputs, plus a home theatre bypass, but also optical and coaxial digital inputs, a USB input for any signal up to DSD128 and Ethernet connectivity. Hegel says that the H360 delivers 250-watts per channel into 8 and 420-watts per channel into 4 with a damping factor of more than 4,000. Frequency response is rated at 5Hz–180kHz, with signal-to-noise at more than 100dB. Although you’d never guess just by looking at the minimalist front panel, the H360 functions as a pre-amplifier (thanks to line outputs), power amplifier and USB DAC. As a streamer, it supports Apple AirPlay and DLNA, plus the USB input supports all…

German manufacturer Lindemann has announced that it has redesigned its Music-Book:10, MusicBook:15, MusicBook:20 and MusicBook:25 so they all now use new DACs capable of processing DSD256. ‘The launch was timed to coincide with the HighEnd 2016 show in Munich’ said Norbert Lindemann, founder and owner. ‘This redesign means that the new models are the first in the world to offer the feature combination where all digital source data (e.g. from CD, streamer, USB interface, digital inputs and even Bluetooth) are re-sampled to DSD256 with subsequent conversion of the DSD signal in the Pure Path mode.’ According to Nikola Markovic, of Audio Magic, which distributes Lindemann in Australia, the result of the change has resulted in a leap in sound quality. ‘The sonic gain of the new converter architecture is dramatic,…

The CD-3000 is Yamaha’s top-of-the-line SACD player, which also puts it at the top of Yamaha’ range of CD players, and it’s a beauty… in every sense of the word. Appearance, sound quality, build quality… the CD-3000 aces it in every single one of these departments, plus there’s more besides… THE EQUIPMENT If you’re one of those who think CDs are ‘passé’, ‘on their way out’ or ‘old technology’ I’d first have to ask why you’re reading this review at all. Go away! Secondly, I’d have to point out you’re wrong, because almost all (let’s say 99.99 per cent) of the digital music in the world is fundamentally 16-bit/44.1kHz quality, which is exactly the quality provided on CD. (Sorry hi-res fan-bois, but it’s true. It’s a long story, too long…

Bowers & Wilkins had the audacity to drag journalists away from the High End exhibition centre to a swanky hotel in Munich for the launch of the ‘best ever B&W’. This is quite a claim given that the original Nautilus is still in production, but the new 800 Diamond is a remarkable beast. At first glance it looks like the 802 Diamond launched late last year but put the two side by side and you realise that the 800, while similar in height, has a wider cabinet and bigger bass drivers. The two models share the machined aluminium Turbine Head with its Continuum cone midrange driver and solid body tweeter pod with the company’s diamond dome inside but that’s where the similarities end. The main change is the bass driver…

Entirely designed and built in Bochum, Germany, Einstein is at heart a family company. Volker Bohlmeier, who co-founded it in 1988, is responsible for the management of the company, while his wife, Annette Heiss, a well-respected architect and interior designer, is responsible for the exterior cosmetic design. Their products are built by hand, rather than on a production line as such, so all Einstein’s products are built in small, bespoke batches. Unlike many smaller manufacturers, who ‘buy in’ sub-assemblies designed and manufactured by third parties, Einstein says that all its circuits are not only unique to it, but also developed in-house. ‘We do not modify, we do not simplify, we do not copy,’ says co-founder and the company’s head electronics designer Rolf Weiler. THE EQUIPMENT The Einstein is certainly unlike…

“I broke into a cold sweat, then started to shake and feel dizzy. That was the strongest effect that music has ever had on me.” Tom Waters : Do you have a first memory, a first unforgettable musical experience that left an impression? Peter Smith: My grandmother had a large wind-up record player that played 78s. In 1950, when I was four years old, I remember her playing I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, sung by Danny Kaye. I remember it well because the record player was taller than I was me—it’s one of my earliest memories. I still have that same record, although I can’t play it. But the thing that really fascinated me was the way that the light reflected from the grooves, and how the lead-in…

Loudspeakers for Music Recording and Reproduction By Philip Newell and Keith Holland ISBN13: 978-0-240-52281-4 Format: Hardback (422 pages) Dimensions: 156×230×28mm Weight: 740g Date of Publication: 18 Dec 2006 Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd Imprint: Focal Press Price: $96 Availability: Book Depository, Amazon, et al The problem with writing a technical book of any kind is getting a sufficient number of people to read it. This is why technical authors the world over dream of having their books included on the mandatory reading lists issued by schools and universities. And if your book is selected as an official text book for a particular course, well you can consign your keyboard to the bin and retire to the Bahamas (actually not true, but I still live in hope…). As for getting your…

Every hi-fi category has its legendary products, and for headphones few would deny a place in that pantheon to the Stax Lambda Signature ‘earspeakers’ (as Stax still calls its headphones). The Japanese company had, after all, developed the world’s first electrostatic headphones at the dawn of the 1960s; the original Lambda came 20 years later, followed by the Signature in 1987—it then became a reference product for a decade. This reviewer remembers being once saddled with a test of 70 types of blank tape cassettes for a UK hi-fi title; this potential nightmare of comparative star ratings could be reliably completed only once we had in place the spectacular audio resolution of a pair of Lambda Signatures, with their dedicated valve amplifier attached to another legend, the Nakamichi Dragon cassette…

ABOUT US Sydney Hi-Fi Castle Hill has been operating in the Hills district for twenty-five years. We specialise in quality Hi-Fi and Home Theatre products and back it up with many years of industry experience. Top quality brands and accessories partnered with our design team and custom installation options give our customers an unparalleled choice in Hi-Fi, home theatre and outdoor systems tailored to your individual requirements. SERVICE & SUPPORT With six dedicated sound lounges, including a custom theatre, a visit to our store is a true experience for the AV enthusiast. Our audio specialists have spent many years putting together music and theatre systems to meet the requirements of discerning listeners and it remains a true passion that we still enjoy today. Come in store today and experience outstanding…

M6 Encore 225 To think of Musical Fidelity’s new Encore 225 (above) as a conventional CD player would be a mistake — it’s far more than that. Sure it plays CDs, but it’s also a disc ripper, a DAC and an amplifier, all in one box! The CD ripper is mated to an upgradable 2TB Hard Drive and a 64-bit Intel CPU, with 2GB of RAM that you can also upgrade. As a DAC/preamp it accepts almost any conceivable analogue or digital audio source, and can handle audio files up to 32-bit/384kHz. It also has networking capabilities, meaning it’s compatible with many multi-room network speakers, such as Sonos. And as if that’s not enough, its own internal amplifiers offer an incredible 225watts per channel. Just add loudspeakers! Easy operation is…

Tivoli Audio’s PAL radio has been around for a number of years, and it’s consistently received favourable reviews. For good reason too – the PAL has always offered remarkably rich sound for such a small mono speaker device; it has a footprint of less than 10cm square. The analogue-only radio reception has always been something of a standout, with clear and clean reception the norm, especially on the FM band. In more recent times Tivoli has been expanding its appeal by adding Bluetooth streaming capability, and also achieving a substantial 16-hour battery life – making it a pretty compelling travelling companion or portable entertainment solution. Now comes this Limited Edition, the PALBT GLO, with a weather-resistant clear-frost housing and splashproof speaker. But its best party trick is the dimmable LED…

The M12/M22 combination from NAD’s Masters Series has been out for a little while now, but we thought it was a good pair to revisit, having proven a fine combination worthy of consideration. The M12 is a Direct Digital preamp and DAC. It offers superb flexibility through NAD’s Modular Design Construction (MDC), meaning that it has rear panel slots that can take various input modules, so configuring the preamp to your needs. There are three slots filled as standard – one analogue module and two digital. The first provides balanced and line-level inputs plus a configurable phono stage for MM or MC cartridges. The second module offers digital inputs – two coaxial, two optical and one XLR-type AES/EBU, while the third module accepts USB sources, with both a USB type-A…

“The digital-to-analogue output conversion stage features 32-bit ESS Sabre DACs as used in Krell’s top-of-the-line Cipher SACD player...” The Krell Vanguard Universal DAC is now available, effectively the first standalone DAC from Krell in over 20 years, and it’s certainly been worth the wait. It is packaged full of features including USB, HDMI, coaxial and optical digital inputs; Ethernet music streaming controlled through dedicated iOS and Android apps; and aptX Bluetooth for wireless streaming from phones, tablets and computers. Coax and HDMI inputs support computer audio PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz, while the optical input supports PCM up to 24-bit/96kHz. The digital-to-analogue output conversion stage features 32-bit ESS Sabre DACs (as used in Krell’s top-of-the-line Cipher SACD player) and feeds a classic Krell discrete balanced output stage. It also has…

If you haven’t experienced the magic of Class A valve sound with Richter’s hand-made Sorcerer amplifier, then you really need to give it a listen. This is an amplifier designed to bathe you in warm, clear sound from premium electronics and genuine state-of-the-art tolerance-matched KT 120 vacuum tubes – the new ‘king’ of valves. But it’s also bang up to date, making your digital music files sound better than you ever thought possible thanks to the Sorcerer’s 32-bit 384kHz USB digital-audio converter (DAC). There’s also a minijack option to accept today’s portable digital devices! The Sorcerer is big brother to Richter’s Mystique amplifier and it lives up to Richter’s ‘best value for money’ tradition established since 1986 by its award-winning speaker range. Richter’s speakers are, of course, perfectly matched to…